Security Engineer

Cisco • San Francisco, CA

1d

About The Position

Join Cisco's Network Device Security Organization to help protect more than 50 million live network devices, including routers, switches, access points, wireless LAN controllers, campus gateways, industrial IoT devices, cameras, and sensors. The organization secures products that power the internet, from autonomous on-premises systems to cloud-managed networks, turning security research into practical protections across hardware, firmware, and software.

The Security Engineer will help shape how Cisco designs, reviews, and verifies security across its network device portfolio. The role creates threat models, reviews device architectures and code to identify root causes of weaknesses, translates recurring weakness classes into secure patterns and reusable engineering controls, and tests security claims after implementation using reproducible evidence. The engineer collaborates across functions, cultures, and geographies, and uses AI-enabled workflows to improve security delivery.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related technical field and 7 years of related experience; or a master's degree and 4 years; or a PhD and 1 year.
• Experience delivering threat models, security reviews, and reusable controls or patterns, with test cases and reproducible evidence that verify implemented behavior.
• Experience assessing and improving the security of embedded or IoT network devices across hardware, firmware, and the device lifecycle.
• Experience with C/C++ code review, device security testing, and security tooling in Python or a comparable language.
• Experience using CWE hardware and software weakness hierarchies to identify root causes and recurring patterns.
• Experience applying MITRE EMB3D, OWASP IoT guidance, or comparable device-security frameworks to threat modeling and remediation.

Nice To Haves

• CSSLP certification is preferred.
• Experience collaborating with engineers across functions, cultures, and geographies in large matrix organizations, including clear communication of security findings and technical tradeoffs, mentoring, and coordinated delivery.
• Experience applying systems thinking and risk exposure to prioritize security work, align claims with evidence, and guide escalations that support high-quality delivery and customer outcomes.
• Experience building agentic workflows that integrate models, tools, and engineering data, with evaluations, human review, protected inputs, and improvements as model capabilities change.
• Experience developing static-analysis rules, secure APIs or wrappers, or CI/CD guardrails, and evaluating their precision, coverage, and adoption across multiple repositories or product families.

Responsibilities

• Create threat models and review device architectures and code to identify security weaknesses at their root.
• Translate recurring weakness classes into secure patterns and reusable engineering controls.
• Test security claims after implementation and provide reproducible evidence of effective protections and remaining gaps.
• Assess and improve embedded and IoT network device security across hardware, firmware, and the device lifecycle.
• Conduct C/C++ code reviews and device security testing, and use security tooling in Python or a comparable language.
• Use CWE hardware and software weakness hierarchies to identify root causes and recurring patterns.
• Apply MITRE EMB3D, OWASP IoT guidance, or comparable device-security frameworks to threat modeling and remediation.
• Collaborate with engineers across functions, cultures, and geographies to support security delivery.
• Apply systems thinking and risk exposure to prioritize security work, align claims with evidence, and guide escalations.
• Build agentic workflows integrating models, tools, and engineering data, with evaluations, human review, protected inputs, and ongoing improvements.
• Develop static-analysis rules, secure APIs or wrappers, or CI/CD guardrails, and evaluate their precision, coverage, and adoption across repositories or product families.

Benefits

• Medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• 401(k) plan with Cisco matching contribution
• Paid parental leave
• Short- and long-term disability coverage
• Basic life insurance
• Paid holidays
• Floating holiday for non-exempt employees
• Paid birthday day off
• Paid year-end holiday shutdown
• Paid personal wellness days
• Paid vacation or flexible vacation time off, depending on employee classification
• Paid sick time
• Additional paid time away may be requested for critical or emergency family issues
• Optional paid volunteer days
• Annual bonuses for eligible non-sales employees
• Potential grants of Cisco restricted stock units

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior